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M Conference 2019

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This is a forum for attendees and speakers, as well as Manager Tools followers who are interested in discussing and learning more about our exciting new event! I will be visiting the forums on a regular basis to answer your questions, provide assistance and collect your thoughts and ideas. Remember that this event was created to serve YOU, our audience, so comment at will! I look forward to hearing you all contribute!

Awesome Robert! I'm trying to nail down plans by next week since we'll all likely be booking travel soon. Will ping my AT&T friend now for an update on Las Colinas. I'm booking my travel assuming we are golfing Friday morning, Las Colinas or not.

1. Determined we are going to play TPC Las Colinas on Friday morning the 11th

2. AT&T friend who was going to get us on has not come through yet

3. I've booked a room at the resort to ensure we can get on, friend failing, and since I am not a TPC member.

4. Resort guests can only book tee times 45 days in advance, so Nicole at TPC Las Colinas is calling me back next Tuesday, August 27th, or I will call her. I've requested a tee time for 4 between 0800 and 0900. Right now, that's me, Robert, Mark, and TBD (who else is interested??).

As far as booking travel, I'm committed to playing Friday morning at TPC and flights are booked accordingly. If for some reason we can't get a tee time next Tuesday at TPC, we'll go to plan B and find another course.

Hi fellow M conference attendees, my name is Francois Chalifour, most people call me Frankie. I am super excited to attend this conference. As I opened the email, I followed the thread and within minutes I was signed up and paid for. I have been a Manager-Tools listener from the very beginning and am a true believer in the guidance provided by Mark and Mike and their team. Still need work on my loyalty to the guidance but I have to admit I am getting better everyday.

I was born in Quebec City, Canada and studied in Quebec and Ontario through to becoming a CPA. I worked in audit for a few years, and then as assistant controller for a food manufacturer in Montréal. In1995 I moved to Jamaica to help in mywife’s Family business and have there ever since. Our company has grown tremendously and I can attribute much of my managerial successes to the guidance received from MT, and I see many team members at our company demonstrating many of the tools and habits promoted by MT.

I am looking forward to meeting everyone at the conference and sharing experiences; ideas and much more

I'm also very excited to attend and meet everyone. I've met Maggie and Mark, and I think Mike, in person before, and looking forward to meeting the rest of the M-T team face to face! I've been a loyal listener and practitioner since about 2009... introduced to Manager Tools by my former boss, Suzie Nicoletti, and peer Rob Redmond, both of whom know Mark and Mike.

I grew up in suburban Philadelphia, graduated from Villanova Univ with degree in EE and Solid State Physics (Go Cats!), and then spent 9 years in the US Navy submarine force.

I've spent the last 25 years working for AT&T (BellSouth, Cingular) in IT, leading software application development teams and organizations. I've spent the last 10 years using Manager Tools practices, and it has transformed my career. I've also got an MBA (2007) from Coles College of Business and have been active in that program as an individual and team coach since.

I am an active Boy Scout leader and enjoy backpacking, fly fishing, biking, and golf. I'm married with 4 children (31, 28, 23, and 3 (you did not misread that :-) ) and one grandchild (1 month).

Finally: Looking forward to the Braves beating the Dodgers this year on their way to the World Series. That may just be in progress while we're at the conference.

Such a good one, thanks for the intro, John! At the event you should get with our speaker, Gene Hill, he is also a fly fisherman... the two of you will have many "one that got away" stories to trade I'm sure.

Thanks Sarah! I like to backpack and fly fish in remote streams/rivers... which means the trout are wild and they almost always see me coming and hide. And I spend half my time untangling my fly from the trees. It is incredibly beuatiful and relaxing... and not likely at the same level of fly fishing as Gene. Still... there will be good discussion :-).

My Name is Nathan Feger, and I too have been a loyal listener to the podcast for quite some time. I regularly assign it as homework to my employees looking to dig deeper into any number of topics that have been covered.

I am a newly minted director as of last week, and knowing that was coming I was super excited to hear about this conference. Specifically, how I can start moving away from the individual project attention I now use to gauge individual and team performances to more indirect metrics driven approach so I can know where I can focus my efforts. (While not inadvertantly causing undue harm with these metrics)

I work for an Ed Tech company Schoology where I am responsible for the primary customer facing software.

I have managed distributed teams for all of my management career, even having been in a spot with no directs in my current office.

I grew up in PA and have now been in Texas for most of my life. If I'm not working and all is right in the world, there will be a barbell in my hands.

Congrats on the promotion, I'm glad to hear that the timing of the event cooincides so nicely with your new promotion. I love the barbell comment, if I'm not working and all is right in the world I have my running shoes on!

Greetings all. I'm Von Welch and I've been a MT practitioner for about 10 years. During that time I've built up a computer security research center at Indiana University in no small thanks to MT, which I consider not just good for my team, but a competitive advantage. The last couple years we've grown such that I've been adding a management layer to my organization, developing a new set of managers, so I'm very interesting in conversations and insights in to the new director role I've grown into. My other activites include woodworking and serving on the boards for two local threaters as well as our homeless shelter. Great looking agenda for the confernce, and I'm looking forward to meeting everyone.

Hi there. My name is Robert Greiner. I'm looking forward to meeting you all in October!

[Quick Bio:]
I grew up in the Dallas area. Met my wife in high-school. We dated through college and got married shortly after. We have two kids (six and three) that keep us young. I spent the first seven years of my career as a Software Engineer. I've been working as a consultant for the past (almost) eight years, starting out as a tech lead and now on the leadership team of our largest client with over 50 consultants and 15 projects. I owe a great deal of my career success to Manager Tools, you were there when I needed you and deeply appreciate all that you do.

[Short Story:]
My first experience with Manager Tools was back in 2012. I just joined a consulting firm as a tech lead / architect and was driving to my client (now bankrupt) 120 miles/day from Dallas to Ft. Worth.

About 12 weeks in, the manager on the project left the company. Within the span of 24 hours I (temporarily) took over responsibility for two development teams and eight consultants. I had no idea what I was doing.

Luckily, Manager Tools was one of the first resources I stumbled upon - a poster-case for "when the student is ready, the teacher appears...". Thanks to the MT podcasts and my 2.5 hr commute each day, I was able to get up-to-speed on the Trinity very quickly, put it into practice, and go from surviving to thriving before anyone realized how little I knew about leading projects. Because of your guidance, our account lead decided not to backfill and I took permanent responsibility for both teams.

While I owe a great deal of my career success to the fantastic guidance from Manager Tools, the advice I'm most grateful for is your guidance on DiSC. Before I listened to MT, I was convinced I was a detail-oriented introvert. After all... aren't all software developers? Turns out, I'm extroverted (High-D/High-I) and not detail oriented at all. The Manager Tools podcasts on behavior preferences helped me understand myself better and gave me a vocabulary to communicate this understanding with others.

In 2012, my career was injected with the rocket fuel that is MT and I'm looking forward to taking the next step with ya'll in October!

Looking forward to meeting you in Dallas, Robert! So glad we could be there to ease your 2.5 hour commute, I feel like so many of us started in that same boat... hey I have all this car time, maybe I can learn something. Looking forward to us all taking that next step together at the M Conference :)

Hello everyone! My name is Dan Kligerman, and I'm from Toronto, Canada. I've been listening to Manager Tools since the beginning, and have been a licensee for most of that time. I work at TELUS, one of Canada's three large telecommunications companies; we have about 10M mobile subscribers, 5M wireline customer connections, and $14B in annual revenue.

I've been at TELUS my whole career--it'll be 25 years next year--starting as a front-line support agent, and progressing through various roles over that time. When I first started listening to Manager Tools 14 years ago, I had just taken on my first management role. The management tools and techniques I learned through the podcsts were (and still are) extremely valuable, and built the foundation for me to succeed as a leader, achieving great results for the organization. Five years ago I was promoted to director, and last year I started a special assignment, reporting to an executive who reports directly to the CEO.

I hold a B.Sc in computer science, statistics, and English, as well as an MBA in strategy and leadership that I completed two years ago. The MBA was a unique experience--TELUS created a custom program at the University of Victoria, and then selected 20 employees to attend. Aside from the quality curriculum, this program gave me the opportunity to get to know several senior executives, including the CEO, which is what led to my current special assignment.

When I heard about the M Conference, it immediately resonated with me as an event I would love to attend. I'm excited to meet all of you, to learn from each other, expand our networks, and help shape the future of management.

Looking forward to meeting you at the M Conference, Dan! I always love seeing my fellow Canadians on the list of attendees. While most of our work happens to take place in America we do have those pockets of listeners, and quite a large on at TELUS in Toronto actually. Make a note to track me down in Dallas and I'll fill you in, build you some connections for when you return home!

After reading all your great profiles and intros, I felt compelled to join in! Thanks for sharing, everyone. Like Dan, I am also from Toronto. Apparently, "the world needs more Canada", so here we come...

I am the mother of two cool teenagers (one considerably cooler than the other), married for 21 years to my childhood sweetheart, Wes, and have been an MT junkie since stumbling across the podcast over 10 years ago. I started off by using the advice myself in 2008 as I took on my first CEO role, then teaching it to anyone who would listen after that. I can't wait to meet other MT devotees in Dallas in October. The High D/High I in me wants to end every sentence with an exclamation mark, but I am resisting for the benefit of you C's and S's out there. I am still learning every day how to be a better manager, screwing up more than getting it right most days, but I have found that building strong relationships makes people very forgiving of my flaws. Thanks for that, Manager Tools!

What a great idea to do some short intros before the conference. Once I saw that, I knew I had to add mine as well.

I've been listening to the podcasts since nearly the beginning when I was first leading people. I certainly didn't know what I was doing then (but thought I did) and the MT casts were invaluable to me. I've since moved through my company and am now a Plant Manager, leading about 250 people. I'm eager to meet all of you and hone my executive skills. This role has definitely been a shift for how I generate value - I'm ready to learn on how to do it better.

My degree is in Electrical Engineering, which is what I originally practiced before discovering that I enjoyed leading people more. I've worked for the same company for my entire career and am looking forward to additional, outside perspectives.

Every day I realize how little I knew yesterday and how little I knew about how little I knew. Always helps to remember, we all feel that way. Looking forward to meeting you at the M Conference, David!

My name is Thomas Eaves, I’m from Houston TX. My background is Information Technology operations in the energy space. I've used the Effective Manger methodologies since 2017, I started listening to Manager Tool’s podcasts late 2016. I’m looking forward to learning and collaborating with others who desire to grow professionally and to build high performing teams.

I’ll arrive late afternoon Tuesday if a group is forming for coffee, dinner or a drink Tuesday evening.

While I'm sure that we'll have more than enough running around to do, there is always time for a beverage. If you all end up getting together in advance of the event, Thomas, text us at 831.612.7292. The entire MT crew will get the message and one or more of us may pop by and join the festivities for a bit.

I live in the Seattle area with my wife and our 17 year old son where we enjoy hiking, movies, and board games. And of course we're in the midst of navigating post-HS plans with our son.

I've worked for Nintendo for the past 17 years, first in Operations and now in Legal where I manage Product Compliance and Corporate Social Responsibility.

I started listening to the Podcasts in 2011 and started my license subscription soon after. Manager Tools has been invaluable in making the transition from individual contributor to people manager. I can trace many of my best habits and decisions to MT and most of my biggest mistakes are things I learned from MT but didn't effectively put into practice.

Please reach out and connect with me on LinkedIn so that we can all start putting faces and names together (great idea, David).

It occurs to me that you might not be aware of our thriving Seattle Manager Tools Meet Up Group, Eden. If you're looking for more MT connections in your fair city, I have plenty of them! Be sure to track me down at the M Confernece, I'll put you in touch with a group of 10 local Seattleites and help to build your network when you get back home :)

Manager Tools Team - please let me know if this doesn't fit with your vision for the future of the M Conference and I'll delete the group. I created the group in part to provide a private space for more nuanced discussion and in part because LinkedIn seemed to resonate with this group as a place to connect. That said, no hard feelings if you have other ideas and want me to take it down. I'm also happy to transfer administrative rights to you all if you prefer to directly oversee the group.

I just requested your acceptance, and others from MT will likely be doing so as well. We chatted about your LI Group on our weekly Ops call this morning, and all agreed that we love how you all are jumping in and taking control to foster this community of professionals! Our vision for the M Conference is serving those who attend so this group fits in just fine :)

Folks, looking forward to meeting y'all in October. I too have been a long time listener and currently work in London at a consulting firm called Publicis Sapient. And if people want to stay in touch via WhatsApp, I've setup a little group https://chat.whatsapp.com/FTDOicgcrOuAOSLv4Ryqpf

Howdy everyone! I work at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, TX. We're a non-profit scientific research and development organization of about 2700 folks covering virtually every corner of the physical sciences. I am the executive director of our materials and fluids departments, which has about 100 staff. I was on the technical side for about 15 years, and have now been in management for about 15 years. I've been using MTs since I found them about 12 years ago and have found the tools and guidance to be incredibly helpful (I think they’ve even helped me out a little at home too)! I talked Mark into providing the EMC/ECC on-site back in 2015 and now our Mechanical Engineering division is adopting MTs in all of our departments. I’m been happily married for 35 years, have two boys (31 & 28) and four grandkids. I’d love to play golf on Friday but unfortunately have to get back here Thursday night. Very much looking forward to the conference and meeting many of you.

Looking forward to meeting you in Dallas, Ben! I am sure that Mark also looks forward to seeing you again... Mechanical Engineers who love golf... 2 peas in a pod. And you get a gold star for being the first to submit your phone number to us, thank you :)

Another foundation MT-devotee here. I'm Jamaican and a friend of Frankie, who started this bio trend.

I've worked in the P&C insurance business for 37 years. But I long ago realised that what I really love is getting the best out of people.

I started listening to the podcasts maybe 12 years ago. Long enough that it was before shownotes were available - I remember writing notes longhand with liberal use of the pause button on my iPod.

My thirst for management knowledge started the first time I was put in charge of a team, and I realized I'd have to do performance appraisals on these guys with virtually no idea of how to go about doing so. One of my favourite quotations about Management came from Michael Wade blogging as 'Execupundit', who said “Management is one of the few skills believed to be acquired through osmosis.” I wanted a better way to acquire those skills, and found it in MT.

I'm really looking forward to the M conference, and meeting the MT team in person and of course my fellow devotees.

Greetings all, thanks to everyone for sharing their bios and to Frankie for kicking them off. Sorry for my delayed response. I’m also a long time MT alumni and have introduced MT to my organization with moderate success. The use of O3s, meeting protocols, and BLUF are foundational practices, but the feedback model is still not where it should be after many years of coaching.

I work in the U.S. Government at the Office of Inspector General for the Department of the Interior. We are a small office of 250 employees and I serve as the Chief of Staff.

I’m looking forward to meeting everyone and learning from each of you.

Hi everyone. I'm Andrew Spillman. My wife and I have two boys ages 3 and 5. They are my sun.

As far as my yellow peanut M&M, I work at MGM Resorts, Intl as Director of HR Shared Services where I oversee centralized HR processes for our 83,000 employees across 23 resorts and several corporate offices. Prior to this role, I was Director of Workforce Management at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino (an MGM Resorts property). My good friends like to tell me I went to the "dark side" twice simultaneously by joining Corporate and HR. Sounds a little like Dark Mark. :-)

I began my career in retail and have worked for three Fortune 500 companies. I'm fascinated by the organizational structures, processes, and behaviors to which I've been exposed.

Hey Andrew, I haven't talked to you since you were back at Mandalay Bay, congrats on the move. Looking forward to actually meeting you in person at the M Conference... maybe you can sell me on the finer points of bringing an MT Public Conference event to Vegas...